© Tom Zeimet / RTL
The Minister of Health and Social Security Martine Deprez presented the site on which the public can take part in debates about the pension system.
However, “debate” needs to be put into context: on the website schwätzmat.lu the user can fill out a form with a limit of 500 characters and submit it. Opinions, ideas and reformative suggestions need to be kept short and concise, like a tweet.
The submitted posts are also not published as they are, so that the public could interact with each other. Martine Deprez reasoned with data protection, contrarily to what the site does: people are not even asked whether they want their post published. The data protection issue is included in the site. Martine Deprez clarifies that at a later date, the suggestions, which have been submitted during the so-called "consultation phase" which ends at the end of November, will be published under a synthesised form.
Simultaneously, the minister entertains conversations with diverse representatives of interests, such as the trade unions, the Luxembourg Employers’ Association UEL, the Insurance Companies Association ACA, the student association ACEL, the national student conference, the federation of farmers and the CNFP, the National Council of Public Finance. What stands out is that no invitation has been extended to women’s organisations, although women receive lower pensions. The content of these conservations will be published with the consent of the partners - therefore the messages which reach the public audience are also filtered on that front.
In a second “phase of dialogue”, interested citizens can fill out thematic forms on the website. At the same time, in the spring of next year experts are going to talk about the topics, advise each other. After the minister had first explained those experts would be deputies, she corrected her statement with the clarification that the experts will be employees of IGSS, Liser, or Statec, as well as deputees.
Scheduled in 2025, there will be a public closing event for a broader discussion about the pension system.
Are reforms also valid for state employees?
When asked whether possible reforms of the ‘Régime General’ will also apply to the ‘Régime Spécial’ for state employees, Martine Deprez replies that she cannot imagine that the results of the debate will only focus on the ‘Régime Général’. Martine Deprez avoids the question concerning possible pension cuts for transitory state employees, so she claims: “I am not responsible for the ‘Régime Spécial transitoire’. The latter was put into place in 1999, and it was not even touched in 2012.”
Being reminded that she was a part of the government in 2024, and that the questions concern the current situations, she added the following to the subject of special state employee regimes: “We are in a phase of consultation, where if most people feel the need to talk about this, they will share that. Then we need to consider drawing conclusions and think about how we will tackle the subject in 2025.”
